"Research group IHS found that the global proliferation of FTTH is not being reflected in North America, citing high costs, lack of demand and no true competition as staunch impediments." ...

... "One analyst calculated Google could end up paying nearly $8,000 to connect a single home. Apply that figure to its claim of connecting up to 500,000 homes and you get a multi-billion dollar venture  one that might not bear fruit for the company (or others) for years." ...=======

* I'd like to know more details about that study because it sounds very skewed to me. Although $8,000 sounds very expensive to connect one home to fiber, compare that cost to installing a water main or a sewer line to the same home. After the cost of City, County and State permits are added, $8,000 seems pretty cheap. For giggles, check the cost of installing a septic tank system starting with the permitting process.